Cloak and Dagger Meeting
Report: Jonathan Pollard Met with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee – White House "Alarmed"
Shock in Washington: Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard holds secret "friendly" meeting with US Ambassador Huckabee – White House officials "panicked" when they found out.
Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. naval analyst who served 30 years in American prison for spying on behalf of Israel, held a private meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at the U.S. Embassy in July 2025, according to a New York Times report published today (Thursday).
Pollard confirmed the meeting to the newspaper, describing it as “friendly” and saying he thanked Huckabee for advocating his release more than a decade ago. Multiple topics were discussed, Pollard said, but he declined to elaborate.
The encounter was not listed on Huckabee’s official schedule and was not disclosed in advance to the White House or State Department. Senior U.S. officials, including some at the CIA station in Israel, were reportedly “startled” and “concerned” when they learned of it, given Pollard’s status as a convicted spy who has never expressed remorse for passing classified documents to Israel in the 1980s.
The U.S. Embassy in Israel acknowledged that Huckabee meets with “various individuals” but called the NYT report “riddled with inaccuracies” without denying the meeting took place.The meeting is considered highly unusual for a sitting American ambassador, especially toward someone still viewed in U.S. intelligence circles as a traitor. This is despite the fact that Israel and the U.S. are allies.
Pollard, 71, was released on parole in 2015 and immigrated to Israel in 2020, where he was greeted as a hero by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has recently spoken of running for the Knesset.